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William Demarest

Carl William Demarest (February 27, 1892 – December 27, 1983) was an American character actor, known for playing Uncle Charley in My Three Sons.[1] A veteran of World War I, Demarest became a prolific film and television actor, appearing in over 140 films, beginning in 1926 and ending in the 1970s. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles.

Demarest started in show business working in vaudeville, appearing with his wife Estelle Collette (real name Esther Zychlin) as "Demarest and Colette", then moved on to Broadway. Demarest worked regularly with director Preston Sturges, becoming part of a "stock" troupe of actors that Sturges repeatedly cast in his films. He appeared in ten films written by Sturges, eight of which were under his direction, including The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.

Demarest was such a familiar figure at the Paramount studio that just his name was used in the movie Sunset Boulevard as a potential star for William Holden's unsold baseball screenplay.

Demarest appeared with veteran western film star Roscoe Ates in the 1958 episode "And the Desert Shall Blossom" of CBS'sAlfred Hitchcock Presents. In the story line, Ates and Demarest appear as old timers living in the Nevada desert. The local sheriff, played by Ben Johnson, appears with an eviction notice, but he agrees to let the pair stay on their property if they can make a dead rosebush bloom within the next month.

Demarest was married twice. His first wife was his vaudeville partner Estelle Collette (October 26, 1886 – November 19, 1968),[8] born Esther Zichlin.[9] Demarest helped raise her daughter from her earlier marriage to poet and novelist Samuel Gordon (September 10, 1871 – January 10, 1927), author Phyllis Gordon Demarest (b. March 31, 1908).[10] His second wife was Lucile Thayer (September 30, 1912 – October 16, 2009),[11] born Lucile Theurer, daughter of Herman Theurer and Lillie Sjoberg,[12][13] who due to her activism on health issues in the motion picture industry in October 1960 was named California lay-chairman of the ANA fundraising campaign.[14]

^Jewish Chronicle of London, January 14, 1927 issue and June 14, 1907 issue. Obituary of her first husband Samuel Gordon (b. 10 September 1871 Buk, Bavaria, German Empire, m. 12 June 1907 Miss Esther Zichlin, “a violinist of great promise. There was one child of the marriage, a daughter.”, d. 10 January 1927 in Wandsworth, London, England).